HEBRON CEMETERY

NE1/4 SW1/4, Section 28, Twp. 16N, Range 9W

This extremely well kept and beautiful rural cemetery is at the northeast edge of the tiny settlement of Sinclair
about six miles northeast of Jacksonville. The cemetery was adjacent to the Hebron Methodist
Church before that building was torn down and burned on July 19, 1976. The
building had been constructed in 1916. The Jacksonville Daily Journal of Friday, Aug. 5, 1966 noted in the 50 Years
Ago Column that "The new Methodist Church at Hebron will cost an estimated $7,000. It will have a
seating capacity of 350 and an electric light plant will be installed in the building." The earliest church building
at Sinclair, constructed of logs, had been erected about 1835 or 1840. It was replaced by another structure
in 1857 which served until 1916. In the very early days of the white men's settlement, the
cemetery's site was known as Robinson's Campground and the area surrounding was known as Dodsworth Settlement.
On Nov. 9, 1857, Samuel Sinclair laid out the village of Sinclair. An old cemetery was located on the nearby Elisha
Fox farm, but most of those burials were moved to the Hebron Cemetery before 1840. The burials here
have been gathered from several sources over a period of about nine years - in addition, Earl Deatherage and I re-read this cemetery
during October 2005 and took photographs of all the stones we could locate.